


Time, slipping through my fingers

by Nemainofthewater



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Angst, Canon-Compliant, Don't copy to another site, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Love, Miranda-Centric, RipFic, Time Travel, kind of, sorry it wasn't meant to be this emotional
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-04
Updated: 2019-07-04
Packaged: 2020-06-09 12:28:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19475926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nemainofthewater/pseuds/Nemainofthewater
Summary: It was a windy March day when she saw him, standing beneath a tree at St James’ Park, coat swirling around his legs. He probably thought he was being inconspicuous. In all honesty, she probably wouldn’t have spotted him if she hadn’t been trained as a Time Master, hadn’t learnt how to identify that prickling wrongness on the back of her neck as someone playing silly buggers with the timeline.That, and she’d literally seen that coat hundreds of times and it really wasn’t inconspicuous. No matter how much her husband loved it.





	Time, slipping through my fingers

**Author's Note:**

  * For [marAA24](https://archiveofourown.org/users/marAA24/gifts).



> Written as a birthday present for marAA24 who is oasis-wasteland on Tumblr and is amazing! Happy birthday, sorry for the birthday angst?

It was a windy March day when she saw him, standing beneath a tree at St James’ Park, coat swirling around his legs. He probably thought he was being inconspicuous. In all honesty, she probably wouldn’t have spotted him if she hadn’t been trained as a Time Master, hadn’t learnt how to identify that prickling wrongness on the back of her neck as someone playing silly buggers with the timeline.

That, and she’d literally seen that coat hundreds of times and it really wasn’t inconspicuous. No matter how much her husband loved it.

She levered herself to her feet with some difficulty, taking a moment to remind her body that her centre of gravity was significantly further forward than usual, and then started to wander toward Rip, taking care to look as nonchalant as possible. She didn’t want to spook him. After all, there had to be some reason that he was here, now, when he had just set off for a new, month long mission only yesterday.

They had promised each other, when Rip had come to her as soon as he had been assigned a time ship, they had promised that their relationship would be one that they had together, in linear time. Rip had to leave for missions? Fine, lots of couples had to put up with less than ideal working conditions, and it wasn’t like Miranda was any less busy, studying for her PhD in temporal physics at King’s. It was the only way that it would work, they had both known it. Miranda didn’t want to see her Rip grow old and weary in the span of days or weeks or months as, from her perspective, he rushed back to her side immediately after having left. There was a unique pain in watching the man that you love age and die, and it was one that she refused to submit either of them to. Together or not at all.

So for Rip to be here, when they had sworn to each other that they would live linearly…Something had to have happened.

She was only a hundred meters or so from him when he finally realised what she was doing, that her meandering path was taking her closer and closer to him.

“Rip!” she called out, “Don’t you dare run away from me. It’s your fault that I won’t be able to chase after you.”

Rip barked out a soundless laugh in front of her and slumped back against the tree. He looked exhausted, hair stuck up at all angles, face covered in soot and-was that blood? It was his eyes though…his eyes. Full of pain, and seeing them made Miranda walk faster, or really as fast as she could go considering she was carrying what felt like a large watermelon inside of her.

“Miranda,” he said, and in his mouth her name sounded like a prayer and a lament all at once. Looking at her, Rip quickly removed his coat and placed it on the slightly damp ground allowing her to sink down gratefully and sit against the tree trunk for support. She was probably never going to able to get up again, but that was a problem for the future. There were more pressing issues now.

“Now,” she said, tugging him down to sit beside her, “What have you done, Rip?

At that he finally smiled: it was a small, pained thing trying too hard to be normal, but Miranda loved it anyway because it was one of his smiles.

“What makes you think that I did anything?”

“Because I know you,” Miranda said, “And if there’s one constant in life, it’s that where Rip Hunter goes, chaos follows soon after.”

It was meant to be a joke, something that one of their instructors had written on Rip’s end-of-semester report at the Academy and which Miranda had quickly taken to use as her own, if only to see the bright red flush that spread across Rip’s cheeks whenever she said it.

When she said it…Rip flinched back, literally flinched, his face open and distraught. Miranda instinctively reached out to him, and he clung to her. She could feel him shaking in her arms and she hugged him harder, whispering comforting nonsense into his hair.

She loved holding him and being held: after a lifetime of denial and careful isolation the two of them had spent countless hours and lazy mornings just…being, learning each other’s bodies, curled up together and revelling in the sensation of warmth and love and happiness.

After a few minutes the shaking stopped.

“…I’m sorry,” Rip said, “I-I shouldn’t have come here.”

“Don’t be an idiot, Rip,” Miranda said.

“No,” he said, sitting up and properly looking at her: “You don’t understand. I’m really not meant to be here.”

“Because you’re perilously close to crossing your own personal timeline?” Miranda asked, one brown arched. Rip spluttered, and despite everything she couldn’t help but feel a deep sense of satisfaction at the look on his face. She enjoyed keeping him on his toes.

“It wasn’t like you were trying to hide it,” Miranda said.

“No,” Rip said with a bitter smile, “No, I suppose I wasn’t.”

“I won’t ask you,” Miranda said because at least one of them had paid attention in class, and she really didn’t want to have to be dosed with an amnesia pill, “But I’m glad that you came. Damage to the timeline notwithstanding. Although honestly, now that I’ve been able to delve a little deeper into the temporal maths behind it, I do think that the timeline has the potential to be a lot malleable than anyone gives it credit for.”

“Time wants to happen,” Rip said, and for a second there was something terrible in his voice, before he continued: “Although you might well be right, you were always so much better at this than I. You chose your name well.”

“Oh brave new world,” she said softly, “That has such creatures in it!”

“Miranda,” Rip said, “From the Latin mirandus. Worthy of admiration. You’re right. History doesn’t have to be fixed. There…there are things that can be done.”

He started to get up, to stagger to his feet, but Miranda held him fast.

“I can’t know what you’re going to do, or have done,” she said, “But I do know you Rip, and you’re no good to anyone like this. Your past self isn’t meant to return for another three weeks at least: stay with me for a bit. Time will survive.”

Rip hesitated: “I can’t,” he said finally, “I can’t risk it. The Tim- there are people after me, and I don’t want to bring them down on you. And not just because it would be disastrous for the timeline.”

“You’ve finally gone renegade then?” Miranda asked, lips quirking. She had known it was only a matter of time before her Rip left: he was content enough for now, but he couldn’t live with the strict and oppressive organisation forever.

“Something like that,” Rip said, “And it was all for you.”

“Of course it was,” Miranda said, “All your best ideas are thanks to me.”

She leant over as far as she could manage and pressed a soft kiss to the top of his head. “Stay a little longer then,” she said, “Just a few hours. I’ll tell you what idiocies my thesis committee have said this week and you can mock them with me.”

Rip hesitated, but she could see when his resolve crumbled.

“Just a few hours,” he agreed, “And only to save those poor souls who’ve dared to argue with Miranda Coburn.”

And, sitting there together staring out over St James’ Park, Miranda knew that whatever happened she wouldn’t have traded the love she had found for the world.

**Author's Note:**

> I am on Tumblr as [Nemainofthewater ](https://nemainofthewater.tumblr.com)


End file.
